Oakland County teens travel to Haiti to volunteer

An Orchard Lake nonprofit took teenage girls from Oakland County to Haiti to volunteer last year. This year, they will do the same with 33 girls. Photo submitted by Chelsea Gheesling of Good Girl Comeback.

Hannah McInnis holding Hatian children on last year’s mission trip. Photo submitted by Chelsea Gheesling of Good Girl Comeback.

Thirty-three girls, almost all from Oakland County, are traveling to Port-au-Prince, Haiti to help children living in tent cities.

Good Girl Comeback, an Orchard Lake-based nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering teens, set up the July 26 to Aug. 2 trip.

In Haiti, the volunteers, ranging from high school juniors and college seniors, will volunteer with Mission Youth to improve the lives of children living in tent cities who are in desperate need and tackle other various projects in the city. The trip is funded by local fund-raisers, and donations for mission supplies as well as a $500 mission trip fee from the girls that helps with travel cost, room and board.

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The Haitian people living in these tent cities are still suffering in poverty after the earthquake that shook the foundation of their lives in 2012. Many have housing that most would hardly consider a tent, said West Bloomfield resident Chelsea Gheesling, founder of the Good Girl Comeback.

Gheesling, 29, said that she was inspired to start Good Girl Comeback after realizing she how much she wanted to be a “good girl” herself through the influence of her family and friends. During summer training in Rhode Island to learn public speaking and other skills, she started delivering youth presentations to young women and now, eight years later, she continues to impact teen girls around the world.

Gheesling said this is the second year the group is going to Haiti and that she knows what kind of impact it will have on the girls.

“I attribute the growth in volunteers to the life-changing experience the students had last year,” said Gheesling. “They learned how to give of themselves and came home truly appreciating all of their blessings.”

The Haiti trip helps build optimism.

“When girls spend time caring for other people, they see the good in the world and in themselves,” said Gheesling.

Hannah McInnis, 17, and a senior at Farmington Mercy High School, went with he group to Haiti last year and is going this year. She said that she did not expect the kind of impact she received from the trip.

“Going down there, I thought they would learn something from us,” McInnis said. “But, we learned more from them. It was so life changing that I decided to go back.”

McInnis is an ambassador for Good Girl Comeback, an intern and Gheesling’s younger cousin. She said that the relationship she had with a 6-year-old girl named Jasmine was a big part of her trip last year.

“She was sick and was crying so much that she would only let me hold her,” McInnis said. “I tried to rub her back and then she started to rub mine, because she felt bad that I was sad.”

The Good Girl Comeback volunteers will do a lot in Haiti during their brief time there. For 200 children in the tent city, among 360,000 families living in tents, the girls will run summer camps every morning for children, feed them two meals a day, and volunteer at orphanages, children’s hospitals, hospice centers, and food centers.

The girls have already collected more than 250 pounds of health and baby supplies for the people of Haiti and are still accepting donations. To help, visit http://www.goodgirlcomeback.com/2014/06/10/helphaiti/.

Gheesling said that a trip like this doesn’t only inspire a need to help, but it also builds leadership.

“Many of the girls are interning with me and are becoming leaders,” Gheesling said. “I want to help them see that they can make volunteering and helping a career.”

The Haiti trip is just a stepping stone to Gheesling’s ultimate goal for these girls. She started Good Girl Comeback to give young women encouragement and help them become the women they want to be. She gives monthly talks at Our Lady of Refuge School, 3750 Commerce Road in Orchard Lake, and also provides one-on-one counseling for each girl who needs guidance.

“My job is to help them take the time to discover who they want to be, and give them the steps to get there,” Gheesling said. “I want to give them encouragement and want them to see the goodness in others and in themselves.”